Sustainable Packaging, Environmental Stewardship a Way of Life for WS Packaging

Long before recycling and reducing waste became "the right thing do," WS Packaging Group, Green Bay, Wis., USA, established a formal environmental policy built around protecting the environment, conserving energy, and conserving natural resources. 

And now with Charlie Eitel at the helm since 2015, sustainable practices are so deeply entrenched in WS Packaging they are part of its DNA. 

"We recycle everything we can," said Eitel, CEO of WS Packaging Group. "We bale it, we sell it, we recycle it, and we don't do it to make money. It's just the right thing to do."

And, it's also good for business.

With a history of growing sustainable practices at the companies he's led, Eitel should know. 

In 1996, under the leadership of Eitel and the influence of chairman and founder Ray Anderson, commercial flooring innovator Interface Inc. became one of the world's first and truly leading sustainable companies. 

Next, Eitel joined Simmons Bedding Co. as CEO in January 2000 and is credited with guiding the company's growth, increasing product offerings, and implementing corporate environmental efforts.

Now at WS Packaging, Eitel is looking for more ways to innovate and reduce waste like he did in his days at Interface when they created a way to make carpet from corn. 

"We're always looking for more innovative ways to recycle and leave a cleaner footprint," said Eitel. "It's good for the environment and good for our customers."

One example is how WS Packaging is turning waste from one process into a usable resource for another. The company has invested in having more than 1,000 tons of matrix waste, produced in the printing process, converted into fuel pellets each month. This allows the waste to be reused as a fuel source and keeps it out of the landfill.

WS Packaging's paperless ordering process, WebFlex™, also helps reduce waste with electronic quoting, order acknowledgment, and invoicing. 

In the last year and a half, WS Packaging has taken even more steps to conserve and reduce waste, including:

• Installing more energy efficient Mark Andy P Series presses 
• Using more VOC-free LED-UV inks 
• Using an LED light curing system, more efficient than using UV bulbs 
• Using a bulb crusher to help ensure safe disposal of spent lamps, making recycling easier and more efficient. 

When Insight Pharmaceuticals LLC eliminated the unit carton for its new Anacin® Advanced Headache Formula, it turned to WS Packaging for help.

As an over-the-counter drug, Anacin Advanced is required to meet stringent regulatory labeling requirements. The problem was solved with WS Packaging's patented EasyTab® extended text label from the MultiVision® label line.

Removing the chipboard box for 219 million units resulted in saving 16.9 million sq. in. of paperboard. Total cost savings were 50 cents per package.

WS Packaging has dramatically reduced VOC emissions at all of its plants by switching from analog to digital plate-making as well as using water-based inks in almost all of its applications.

This state-of-the-art process was acknowledged by the state of Wisconsin when WS Packaging won a TLMI (Tag and Label Manufacturing Institute) Environmental Award for VOC reduction. One plant reduced VOC output by 40,000 lb. annually.

Additionally, WS Packaging is working with TLMI to help standardize industry sustainability practices through the association's L.I.F.E. (Label Initiative for the Environment) program, through which several WS Packaging plants have already achieved L.I.F.E. certification status.

WS Packaging's Algoma facility also is certified as a Green Tier partner by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

With manufacturing facilities across the U.S. and in Mexico, WS Packaging Group can produce customers' projects near their filling and production facilities to reduce the amount of fuel needed for transportation.

And to further reduce costs waste and packaging costs, WS Packaging and its customers reuse corrugated shipping boxes used to ship products to customers and end users. In one instance, two million boxes were eliminated from the waste stream. 

"It's important that we proceed and progress and continue to look for sustainable avenues," said Allen Bonnell, environment, health, and safety manager at WS Packaging. "Whether it's offering sustainable products like our linerless labels or continuing to recycle and remove waste, it's a combination of the bigger innovations and all of the little things we do that really add up."

More information is available online.

WS Packaging Group Inc., with more than 50 years of experience, is one of the largest printing and label converting operations in North America. It operates 17 manufacturing facilities and produces high-quality packaging products. Its customers range in size from small businesses to large, high-volume manufacturers and consumer product goods companies doing business locally, nationally, and in marketplaces worldwide. WS Packaging Group is majority owned by J.W. Childs Associates, L.P. (JWC), a private equity firm based in Boston, Mass., investing in middle-market growth companies. Since 1995, JWC has invested in more than 40 companies with a transaction value in excess of $12 billion.